Underground
by ibwolf
Summary: Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell leads SG-1 into the depths of an alien cavern in search of an old research lab into Ancient technology. His uneasy at this undertaking stems from more than the burden of command, as the team soon discovers.


**Underground**  
SG-1 Fan fiction  
by _ibwolf_

_Set in season 9 sometime not long after episode 7. Potential spoilers for anything prior to that._

**Summary:**

Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell leads SG-1 into the depths of an alien cavern in search of an old research lab into Ancient technology. His uneasy at this undertaking stems from more than the burden of command, as the team soon discovers.

**Chapter 1: Paranoia**

Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell was feeling a little on edge. So far his hitch as the leader of SG-1 had involved walking a tightrope between one calamity and the next. Not that he had expected anything different being on SG-1; he just hadn't expected to be leading the team.

Thank god I managed to get the team back together, he reassured himself.

The caves they were exploring now were dark, dank and generally unpleasant. More ominously they felt wrong. Cameron had had a very bad feeling about them since the initial briefing back on Earth. He had said as much, although not in those words.

The place smelled ... wrong. It was unnerving, especially since they were, by now, at least one kilometer beneath the surface. Dr. Daniel Jackson, the team's expert on such matters, insisted that the caves had been used by an advanced race at one time. Writings and other clues near the surface pointed to some sort of research facility down here. Something to do with the Ancients. At least that was the working theory. As per normal the clues left behind were vague.

Cameron turned back to make sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be. Immediately behind him came Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter who was operating some kind of gizmo that she had assured him would help them find their way back if needed. Teal'c was bringing up the rear along with two of the local guides that Cameron had dubbed Fred and Barney based on their respective stature and the fact that their real names were all but unpronounceable. Fortunately the two men didn't get the reference.

Daniel was leading the expedition along with Tiala, who the natives insisted was their foremost expert on these caves. They had passed the deepest point that she had ever ventured to three hours ago. So much for native knowledge.

Actually, Cameron had to admit that the natives had been very helpful. They were experienced spelunkers and even though these caves were not especially difficult to navigate, none of the SG-1 team members had extensive experience at this sort of thing. That alone was a big help. More important, however, was the fact that they could spot the signs of where man (or some other sentient) made constructs had been. These didn't tell Cameron much, but with each new one they encountered Daniel seemed to become more animated and excited. A good sign, surely.

As they entered a fairly large cave where the trail that they had been following for the last thirty minutes seemed to branch off in several directions Cameron was about to order a rest stop when Daniel suddenly spoke up. "I think this is it!"

"Is what?"

"It! What we've been looking for." Daniel didn't turn back to answer, instead walking towards the left hand wall in the chamber. Looking at it more carefully Cameron realized that it did look a little artificial.

"That's the lab we're looking?"

"I think so. The entrance anyway."

"It is definitely artificial." Sam spoke up. She'd pulled another gizmo out. Cameron know he was supposed to know what it was and what it did, but dredging up the memory didn't seem important right now.

"How do we get in?" It seemed like the most obvious question in the world.

The long stretch of silence was an answer of sorts.

Finally Daniel spoke up. "There are no obvious locks or anything and I don't see any writing anywhere. Sam?"

"It looks solid from what I can tell."

"So, what? We're banging on the rear wall?"

"No, I don't think so," Daniel began then trailed off.

"You don't think so because?" Cameron had to prod Daniel once it became clear he wasn't going to finish the sentence.

A little started Daniel explained. "Because we've been following a very exact path to here. It all fits, except..."

"We can't get in. Got it. Ok, let's set up camp." Cameron might not know too much about the science, but the practical aspects of this mission were simple enough. "We've been walking for over eleven hours with very little rest. We'll get some food, some sleep and then we'll see."

The floor of the cave was uneven and, naturally, hard as stone. Finding a good place to set up camp proved difficult. After a few minutes surveying the entire chamber, Cameron was forced to admit that the area in front of the supposed entrance was the only piece of reasonably flat area nearby. It made sense to camp near to where they would undoubtedly be working tomorrow, yet Cameron still resisted it until he was left with no choice. He didn't know why, but his intuition was screaming that something was wrong.

Setting up camp wasn't a very protracted affair. No need for tents. Not only was there no danger of rain, it was also plenty warm in here and humid. Cameron thought longingly to the crystal clear pool of water they had passed about three hours ago. They had stopped long enough to fill their water bottles and splash their faces. Now he wished they'd stayed long enough to take a dip. He knew that that hadn't been possible, but still, you could dream.

Dinner was a simple affair. Mostly MREs. They heated some soup, but both with the cave plenty warm and the confined space, it was best not to have an open flame. The absence of a camp fire did little to ease Cameron's mind.

Even though it seemed absurd on the face of things to keep watch when they were deep inside a cave, far from any other sentient life, Cameron nevertheless insisted on it. The others knew better then to argue, but the natives gave him one of their patented looks telling him that they thought he was being ridiculous. Cameron didn't care, nor would he trust them with one of the watches. Since he know that Daniel would be up for awhile anyway, Cameron gave him first watch, then Teal'c, himself and Sam would take the last watch.

Despite his unease, the hardships of the last few days, getting down here, ensured that Cameron fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

---

The cave was almost completely dark. Only the faintest glimmer of light came from somewhere behind him. Cameron fumbled for the flashlight he had had when he fell asleep but couldn't find it. His heart beat faster as he heard a long drawn out moan reverberate about the cave. It wasn't very loud, but there was something in it that cut straight to the bone, gnawing at your soul. Cameron tried to get up, but his feet wouldn't respond properly.

Fear shot through his heart. Fumbling, trying to both fight and flee, Cameron's hand finally came on the butt of his service pistol. Grasping it as a drowning man might grasp a piece of flotsam he tried in vain to steady his nerves.

Snap.

The sound came from behind. Turning around, trying to get up, Cameron managed to twist himself further in his sleeping bag. His gun went off. In the frightening instance when its muzzle flash illuminated the cave he saw something that filled his heart with dread.

---

"Colonel Mitchell" He snapped awake, his heart pounding, as Teal'c gently prodded him. It was a dream, only a dream.

"Are you alright Colonel Mitchell?" Teal'c asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cameron shrugged off Teal'c proffered hand and got up on his own. "Just a bad dream."

Teal'c merely nodded in response. "It is your watch; things have been uneventful so far."

"Thanks Teal'c. I've got it now, you go to bed."

As Teal'c turned in, Cameron took in the cave. Everything was as it had been. The one lantern, mostly sheltered, but giving off enough light to be able to walk about without stepping on someone. Cameron turned it completely down as he donned his night vision goggles. With them on he could see the entire cave, if only in monochromatic green. He carefully inspected it all, walking softly, his hand on his P90, a finger hovering over the safety.

His mind tried to reconstruct what he had seen in his dream when the gun went off. It was only a flash, he couldn't remember any details. The only thing he could remember was that it had terrified him.

His reconnaissance didn't turn up anything. Eventually he returned to the camp and turned the lantern back on and removed the goggles. His nightmare began to fade. Reality restored itself and Cameron began to breathe easier.

I'm getting paranoid, he thought to himself. But it still nagged at him. He wasn't the paranoid type and he'd generally done very well to trust his instincts.

His eyes were drawn to the artificial wall. It pulsed.

At first Cameron had trouble believing his own eyes. Walls just can _not_ do that! Then, just as he was ready to blame it all on his paranoia it happened again. It was like watching a heart beating, the wall expanded and contracted. Not by much, maybe ten centimeters, and it only lasted for half a second or so, but it happened.

Cameron stayed perfectly still, counting the seconds and watching the wall. When he got up to one hundred and thirteen it happened again.

He moved closer and put his hand on the wall. It felt firm, cold. No different from before. Cameron removed his hand before his silent count reached the 113 again. Like clockwork, it happened yet again. It was only then that Cameron realized that no sound accompanied this strange behavior.

Again, Cameron silently counted out the seconds, his eyes never leaving the deceptive surface. Right on cue it happened again. There could be no doubt left, either this was real or he was losing his mind.

"Daniel, Sam!" Cameron called, waking everyone up. His eyes never left the wall as he silently counted out the seconds yet again.

"What's going on?" To their credit his team had woken almost instantly and been up and alert, ready for anything.

"The wall, look at it." It would take too long to explain.

"Look at what?" Daniel sounded perplexed.

"Just. Look." By Cameron's count there were twenty seconds left.

Everyone got really quiet as they stared at the wall. Those twenty seconds seemed to take forever as Cameron wondered how he would ever live it down if nothing were to happen now.

Pulse.

A collective audible gasp came from behind Cameron as the others saw what he had seen several times already.

I'm not crazy … yet.

"It happens every one hundred and thirteen seconds. I've seen it happen five times now."

Presented with such a powerful enigma, Sam and Daniel immediately sprang into action, pulling out instruments to record and analyze the next pulse. Cameron satisfied and relieved that matters where in good hands walked a few feet away and sat down.

The pulsing wall had driven all other thoughts from his mind, but now the foreboding was returning. Even as he watched Sam and Daniel chatter excitedly as they studied the next two pulses, his mood continued to darken. He turned his back to the wall, studying the rest of the cave. The dancing shadows of his people working were almost comforting in the pitch blackness that otherwise engulfed it.

Suddenly Sam was sitting down next to him.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, sure." Cameron knew he wasn't being very convincing. He felt like kicking himself for being such an ass on their first 'routine' mission. As if anything SG-1 did could be called routine.

I'm better than this. Jumping at shadows.

"It looks like that wall is really a force field. It's amazing that it's still so strong after what must be thousands of years."

"The pulses?" What did they have to do with anything?

"I guess the force field is finally beginning to malfunction, that's what we were seeing. The field is temporarily weakening. There must be some sort of internal fail safe that kicks in to prevent a total collapse."

"Can we get through it?" Cameron knew what answer he wanted.

"When it's at full strength we can't even tell that it is a force field. Even weakened it is very strong."

"So … no?"

"I don't know. Maybe. We need to study it more."

Cameron merely nodded, with the adrenalin fading from his system fatigue was catching up with him. He had only gotten four hours of sleep and not very restful sleep at that.

"You sure you're alright?" The concern in her voice cut at him.

Damn it, I'm supposed to be the one worrying about people.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just …"

Great tough guy speech, Cameron chided himself.

"I know this job hasn't been exactly what you were expecting."

"You think?" Ok, time to really turn on the macho. "No, really I'm fine. There's just something about this place. It bothers me." Not perfect, but good enough.

"Ok. It'll be awhile before we know more. You might as well get some sleep." Her mind was already turning back to the enigma behind them.

"Sounds like a plan. Wake me if there are any developments."

"Of course," Sam agreed as she got up and return to the mysterious force field.

"And Sam," Cameron suddenly added.

"Yes?"

"Don't try anything," what was the right word, "experimental without checking in first."

Sam nodded and went back to work. Cameron shook his head at himself. He knew that Sam would never do anything like that without talking to him.

Damn it, I _am_ getting paranoid.

---

When Cameron woke he was actually surprised to realize that he was feeling quite well rested. The noise of people working had been infinitely preferable to the deep, almost echoing silence of the cave.

Cameron checked his watch, he had slept for nearly six hours. No wonder he was feeling so rested.

He got up and made himself breakfast while listening to Sam and Daniel working. Things seemed to be going well.

"So if we hit it at just the right moment," Sam was explaining.

"It should short it out." Daniel finished for her.

"You found a way in." Cameron stated more than asked.

"Yes," Sam was excited, but Cameron could see that both she and Daniel were getting tired, neither had gotten any more sleep.

Sam took a breath, getting ready to explain the details of how they could get in but Cameron forestalled her. "I think I got the gist of it, Sam. How long?"

"As long as the pulses continue, we can try it anytime. It might take a few tries to hit just the right modularization, but judging by the fluctuations in the field, a pretty wide range should do the trick so I don't think that would be much trouble."

"Am I the only one uncomfortable with the fact that it started 'pulsing' just after we got here?" Actually, that was the first time Cameron had thought about it and it had just popped right out.

The two of them looked a little uncomfortable at the question. Obviously it had either not occurred to them, or it had and they were feeling foolish for not mentioning it. In either case it was Sam who tried to rationalize it.

"We don't know that it did, this may have been going on for years for all we know."

"But it wasn't happening when we got here, Daniel spent hours studying it."

Daniel nodded in agreement, he would have noticed the phenomenon.

"Yes, but this may be intermittent." Even Sam herself wasn't very convinced by that. "It is also possible that our very presence here is somehow presenting an additional drain on the force field." Seemed a little more plausible. "There may even be a proximity sensor that activated it when we got close to it." All too plausible.

"So you are assuming it was put there to keep people out?" The question had to be asked. By their reactions Sam and Daniel had not given it any thought.

"It, whatever it is," Daniel answered, "has been abandoned for at least a thousand years. What could there be to keep in after all that time?"

Good question.

"I guess we'll find out." Cameron was resigned to it. They would do their best to get through, but not just yet.

"You two get some rest. We'll go in three hours." Daniel looked as if he was going to argue but clearly thought better of it.

Cameron decided to use the time to explore their immediate vicinity somewhat. Leaving Teal'c with Fred and Barney to guard the camp, Cameron set off with Tiala down one of the unexplored tunnels that led out of the chamber they were in.

"You don't like me much, do you?" Tiala broke the silence after about twenty minutes. So far the tunnel had remained easily passable, only occasionally requiring Cameron to walk hunched over for a few meters at a time. Tiala, good four inches shorter, could manage upright almost the entire way.

"No," Cameron denied it. Actually he neither liked nor disliked their guide. While he found her rather attractive, in a no nonsense kind of way, he simply hadn't gotten to know her very much. Reflecting on it, his mood since the mission began had been not been just down, but introverted. Normally he would have made a much greater effort to get to know all three of them. This time he hadn't. "Why do you say that?" Best to feign ignorance.

"A woman's intuition." Tiala replied, somewhat playfully. It felt as if she saw straight through him.

"You have those here as well." Cameron tried to deflect the conversation.

"Oh, they're quite universal." She replied with a smile. Maybe it was working. "Usually works pretty well." And maybe it wasn't.

Cameron sighed. "It's not you, Tiala. I don't know," Cameron trailed off, still trying to put his feelings into words. "There's something about all this that bothers me. It's been bothering me since I first got the mission briefing."

"You sound like my dad."

"Oh?"

"He came here once to watch me work. He left after just a few hours. When I asked him why he was cutting his trip short, he just said that the place was 'wrong.' The caves have that effect on some people."

"There are others?"

"Sure, one of my research assistant quit last year after working here for six months. He said he couldn't sleep anymore because of the dreams. I think that the confined spaces are a part of it. There is also…"

"Yes?" Cameron prompted.

"It's like you can feel the weight of the ancient civilization that used to inhabit this place."

Cameron simply raised his eyebrow, a trick he'd learned from Teal'c.

"I guess even I feel it at times," Tiala confessed. "I didn't use to, but the more you get to know this place, the more … _real_ it becomes." All the signs of joviality were gone now, but only briefly as she soon perked up. "Of course, I've never heard of anyone getting freaked out about the caves before even setting foot on the planet."

Cameron took it in good humor. Tiala's people had achieved a technological level roughly equal to late nineteenth century Earth. Cameras were still very crude. But the briefing back on Earth had included plenty of videos and photos taken by SG-6 when they did the initial recon. Or maybe, that had nothing to do with it. "I don't know maybe it's me."

Now it was Tiala's turn to raise an eyebrow. Cameron couldn't help but smile at that, clearly he wasn't the only one to have picked that up.

"The last few weeks have been really odd." Yeah, like winding up in charge of the team you would do almost anything to just _join_. Not to mention the whole Ori thing. Best not to.

"Yes, Daniel told me about the Ori." So much for not mentioning the Ori. "I don't know what is behind that wall, but I'm sure it's not the Ori." She was smiling at him again. Despite himself, Cameron's mood was lifting. He decided that he _did_ like her.

The tunnel soon emptied out into a huge chamber, at a considerable height above anything resembling a floor. While it would be possible to rappel down, there was no point in doing so now. The sound of gurgling water betrayed the presence of an otherwise unseen underground river below them somewhere.

Cameron and Tiala retraced their steps and tried another tunnel. It however narrowed quickly and Cameron soon decided that exploring it further was pointless. That left three smaller tunnels out of the chamber with the wall unexplored. Having spent nearly two hours exploring, Cameron decided that enough was enough. His mood was much improved he realized as he sat down to get a bite to eat.

He wasn't surprised that Daniel and Sam were both up, well in advance of the three hours he'd set. Well, he'd only said they couldn't try the experiment until then. Getting something to eat first made sense.

Soon it was time.


End file.
